The play will be performed in Brentor Village Hall at 7.30pm on
Thursday March 26 Friday March 27 and Saturday March 28 2015
Tickets available from the Brentorians Box Office – contact
Helen De Carles on 01822 810412
Adult £5 Children £2

The village of North Brentor has been identified by Dartmoor National Park Authority (DNP) as a rural settlement where the provision of a small number of affordable houses to meet an identified local need could be permitted. Suitable sites will be within or adjoining the settlement and well related to the existing buildings.

Following an appeal for suitable sites for affordable housing nine locations were put forward by the deadline of 30th September 2013. These were initially assessed by the Community Council of Devon and have already been visited by representatives of Dartmoor National Park Authority Planning, West Devon Borough Council, and the Community Council of Devon, accompanied by Brentor Parish Councillors. Following this, the Dartmoor National Park Authority has produced an assessment of all the sites and a shortlist of those considered to merit further investigation. All these documents are available on this website from the ‘Affordable Housing – Background documents’ section below.

The sites put forward and a shortlist from these were discussed at a special Parish Council meeting on Monday 24th February 2014.

A drop in session, where parishioners were able to ask questions about the affordable housing on a one-to-one basis with Parish Councillors, representatives of DNP and WDBC etc, was held on 17th March 2014 and was attended by some 80 parishioners, many of whom filled in feedback forms for the Dartmoor National Park Authority’s Planners. The sites map and consultation/background document available at the session and a feedback form are all available to view or download from the ‘Affordable Housing – Background documents’ section below.

Tim Beavon, Chair of the Brentor Parish Council, provided the following update on 17th April 2014:The initial assessment by DNPA of the sites put forward concluded that site 9 was undeliverable following a report that the land price required was too high. In response to receiving a letter advising him that the site was considered undeliverable the owner has been in contact with DNPA and confirmed that affordable housing land prices are acceptable to him, making the site an option for affordable housing. DNPA has therefore revised its report, also updating some inconsistencies drawn to its attention at the consultation event. The revised report is available below in the ‘background documents’ section.

A question and answer session was held at the Village Hall on 12 May 2014, where planning officers from DNPA, the Housing Officer from West Devon Borough Council and the Community Council of Devon’s Rural Housing Enabler answered questions about the plans for affordable housing. DNPA has completed a summary of the feedback received by 8 April on the possible sites for affordable housing. This is available in the ‘background documents’ section below. Since receiving the feedback site 9, land at Station View, has been reassessed as deliverable therefore DNPA was able to accept further comments on this site.

Further discussion about affordable housing took place at a Parish Council Meeting on Monday 19th May 2014. The three Parish Councillors not affected by a declaration of interest were asked to rank the five shortlisted sites in order of preference and the result of the voting was as follows, in order of preference:- Site 2 (War Memorial), site 3 (Shell Park), Site 1 (Hammer Park), Site 4 (Station Road) and site 9 (Station View). This order of preference has been passed on to the Dartmoor National Park Authority planners. The full minutes of the Parish Council meeting are available in the ‘Parish Council’ pages of this website.

The Dartmoor National Park Authority planners wrote to the owners/developers of the shortlisted sites, asking them to fill in a questionnaire about the deliverability of their sites – a copy of this letter and the questionnaire are available below in the ‘background documents’ section.

DNPA has now provided its report on the responses made by landowners to the questionnaire on whether the sites can be developed to provide affordable housing in a reasonable period of time. The report is available below and is also pinned on the village notice board outside the village hall.

Officers from DNPA and WDBC attended the parish council meeting on Monday 15 September and responded to questions about the report. DNPA also reported that an outline planning application had been submitted for the development of 12 houses at the Hammer Park site. Not all of the requirements regarding the drawings and supporting information were met at the time of the meeting but the application was validated on 17 October 2014 and was published online in the DNPA planning applications list. A site notice was displayed advertising where the plans can be viewed, and how to comment on the plans. A notice was also placed in the local newspaper. A copy of the planning application was placed in the village hall. Copies of all the documents can be viewed on the planning section of DNPA’s website as well as at DNPA’s offices. Anyone wishing to comment on the application had to do so by writing direct to DNPA or submitting comments online by 14 November 2014.
The application was considered by the Parish Council at its meeting on 17 November 2014. Dartmoor National Park authority put on hold any further work on the call for sites exercise until the planning application was determined.

The Chair of Brentor Parish Council, Sheila Burrows, wrote, as an insert for the Brentor News: ‘Dartmoor National Park Development & Planning Committee met on the 9th January 2015 and refused Planning Application 0606/14 for outline planning permission for 12 affordable homes on a site at Hammer Park. The need for affordable homes in Brentor remains, therefore DNPA Planning Officers and representatives from West Devon Borough Council and Devon Communities Together (formerly Community Council of Devon) are seeking to explain the next stage of the planning process at the earliest opportunity.Many challenges remain in fulfilling this process and therefore an additional meeting of the Parish Council is being called where the above representatives will explain what are likely to be the next steps. A period of purdah due to forthcoming local council elections starts on 22nd March 2015, so there is little time available.’ Therefore the Parish Council is taking the opportunity to call an additional meeting on Monday 16th February 2015 at Brentor Village Hall starting at 7.30pm.

Brentor Housing Needs Survey comments, February 2011. Comments provided by respondents to the survey to question C8 of the Brentor Housing Needs Survey. Please note that these are unedited comments and are provided on this website in response to a request to the current Parish Council by a local parishioner. This document was released by the Community Council for Devon in response to a request by the Parish Council.

Letter to the owners of shortlisted sites - a letter from the Senior Forward Planner at Dartmoor National Park Authority to the owners/developers of the shortlisted sites for affordable housing in Brentor, introducing the questionnaire below

Questionnaire about the shortlisted sites – sent for completion by the Dartmoor National Park Authority to the owners/developers of the shortlisted affordable housing sites in Brentor (this has to be returned to the Authority by 1st August 2014)

Review of landowner’s returns – compiled by the Dartmoor National Park Authority from the responses to the questionnaire about the shortlisted sites

Planning Application for Site 1 (Hammer Park) – published on the Dartmoor National Part Authority website on 17 October 2014. (This link takes you to the Planning section of the DNPA website – first accept the terms on the first page and then text search for ‘Hammer Park’ or enter the application number, 0606/14 to view the application).

Thank you to everyone who has taken part in the local broadband survey over the last year or so. The results can be seen by clicking on the link below – please note that these are the combined results for Brentor, Mary Tavy and Peter Tavy, all served by the Mary Tavy telephone exchange. The speed results are for Brentor only and show that 88% of broadband users in the parish get less than 2 mbs download speed and 89% achieve less than 0.49 mbs upload speed. The government’s target of 90% of broadband users having 2 mbs download speed is clearly not the case in our parish!

The Parish Council has been in touch with our local MP concerning the plans for improving our broadband speed. Councillor Drury met with our MP on behalf of Brentor Parish and has received two copy responses as a result of his discussions:

1) From Devon County Council to our MP – click on this link to see the letter DCC letter to MP

2) An e-mail from BT to our MP. Click on this link to see this e-mail – BT response

The Editor of this website, Colin Dawes, has also been in contact with ‘Connecting Devon and Somerset’ about his apallingly slow broadband connection and received this e-mailfrom Ed Cross of the ‘Superfast Broadband Team’ on 29th September 2014. So it looks as if Brentor has no hope of faster broadband until at least 2017 or later!

It would seem that the best way forward will be for us all to register our interest in this issue and keep all parties involved fully aware of our desire for a better broadband connection! Why not follow BT’s own advice……………..register interest with the project team and keep in touch with them for any further updates. The web link below has more information:

The Independent Networks Co-operative Association has launched a registration scheme for people who want to access better broadband but can’t get it. Announced on the BBC Radio 4 You and Yours programme, the scheme encourages individuals, businesses and communities register their notspot information at www.inca.coop.

The information collected will be made available to alternative broadband providers looking for opportunities to serve areas that are left out of BT’s superfast broad band roll out plans.

Earlier this week the government announced the distribution of an additional £250m central funding amongst local authorities. Councils are expected to find matching funds making a pot of £500m to extend superfast broadband coverage. Alternative providers delivering fibre, wireless or satellite broadband are well placed to fill in many of the gaps, often more cost-effectively than BT.

David Cullen, INCA’s chair and a director of ITS Technology Group said, “Further government funding to extend superfast broadband into the hardest to reach areas is very welcome. There are many companies and community projects eager to get involved and help deliver a truly world class digital infrastructure for the whole of the UK. The Notspot Registration Scheme will identify pockets of pent up demand, helping private sector providers and local councils direct their efforts to best effect.”